


The Rundown

by vindiya



Series: Just Another Tuesday [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bodyguard Bucky Barnes, F/M, Headaches & Migraines, Just Another Tuesday verse, Massage, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, more about the friendship than the romance, moving day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:28:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26308588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vindiya/pseuds/vindiya
Summary: Darcy has a migraine. Bucky saves the day. Darcy rewards him for his efforts with the skinny on all things Avengers-y.Takes place roughly 2 to 6 months after Bucky was hired as her bodyguard and a minimum of a month after Age of Ulton.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Darcy Lewis, James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Series: Just Another Tuesday [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1297403
Comments: 3
Kudos: 112





	The Rundown

**Author's Note:**

> Oh hi there. I'm sort of back to writing again. Trying to find that balance again at any rate since I've been missing it a lot in a lot of ways.
> 
> After deleting the entirety of Dume No, Dume Yes because there was a lot wrong with it and it needs a lot of work and also not writing a darn thing in ages; I bring you this entry for my Just Another Tuesday AU that I wrote around the same time as Just Another Tuesday but forgot about and had left languishing in my google docs for at least a year. I've done a reread and fixed some things but this is still largely unbeta'd for the record. 
> 
> I think this captures a lot of the fun and energy of the first entry and continues with it without getting mired in me trying too hard. I hope you enjoy it, I know I enjoyed the reread myself.

It’s a quiet morning, and they’re becoming more frequent as the staff is slowly transferred to the facility in upstate New York. The labs are being packed away with all the tender love and care their scientists reserve for their work. The apartments boxed up and shipped or stowed depending on the choices of the support staff. The offices are still functioning with millions of little cubicle hating employees that Tony is going to have to throw some major bones their way to sweeten the deal for contract renewal. But separating Avengers into the combatant and non-combatant specific locations makes sense. 

Operations has a skeleton crew on until it’s fully functional at the new digs. Maria Hill has parted ways leaving Tony and Steve to figure out where to go from here. It’s quiet in the tower and Darcy hates it. She misses the laughing in the communal kitchen of the Avengers level apartments. She misses the running feet down corridors as STRIKE team commandos do laps around the floors because it’s more physical than running on a treadmill (there was something about the stairs they have to climb when she asked).

Jane is in a tizzy about a lack of appropriate packing materials and is currently screaming at both FRIDAY and Tony in the lab and Darcy can feel the beginnings of a migraine pounding behind her eyes and temples as she collapses heavily into the leather couch of the lounge.

“Everything okay?” His voice is gruff and heavy, the syllables rolling along her senses as she squints into the sun where the voice came from.

It’s Bucky, she knows it has to be him, he’s the only person that would ask. Jane would if she weren’t distracted by science and she gets that, it’s cool. Pepper, if she were here, would tell her to take some aspirin and have a cup of coffee, take thirty to let the pills kick in and then get back to work. But in the months since Bucky came on (and she lost the bet of him running screaming after day thirty-one) he noticed when she felt like shit and as always he steps in the way of the sun so he’s backlit but she isn’t blinded.

“Jane’s having a screaming match with Tony and FRIDAY about appropriate packing materials for her machines.” She grumbles head falling back against the cushions of the couch with a light thud that makes her wince.

“And you decided to hide out in the lounge?” His voice fades a little and she assumes he’s moving around. He’s stopped making noise around her, walks with that same deadly silent gait that he uses when he’s playing avenger or sparring with Sam or Steve, or any of the other Avengers really.

“Better than seeing how quickly their bickering can bring on a full migraine.” She murmurs knowing he’ll hear her. Most of his senses have been dialed up to eleven because of Zola’s experimentation and subsequent conditioning with HYDRA, Darcy stopped letting it freak her out ages ago.

She hears the faucet run and water hit the bottom of a glass. She doesn’t place the why until Bucky clears his throat and she cracks an eye open to find Bucky before her a glass of water in one hand and two pills in the palm of his other hand. She tries to raise an eyebrow in question and winces as it sends shocks of pain through her head. Fine then. Swiping the pills she pops them in her mouth and downs half the glass of water with them.

Bucky gently pries the glass from her hand as she flops back with another wince. The slight click of it being set aside is enough as she feels the cushions next to her shift and then familiar hands on her upper arms rearranging her so that she’s sitting between his spread legs his fingers in her hair. The not so secret part of her can think of a hundred different things she’d wish those hands would do while in her hair but the throbbing behind her eyes tells that part to take a hike. Pity really because she liked the images of his hands doing those things.

And then his hands start to move and she can’t help the moan as his fingers skim her scalp with slight pressure. Technically, it won’t do anything for the migraine but it’s a hell of a distraction as he swipes his thumbs up along the back of her neck and along her hairline. Behind her ears and down the sides, the chill of his metal hand chasing the fevered clammy sensation she’s been dealing with ever since that first warning pound started behind her right eye. He works his fingers into her hair and to her forehead before very carefully sliding them back over the crown of her head and down her neck and over her shoulders.

Darcy knows she should stop this. Knows deep down that she won’t. It feels too good and Bucky has wonderfully strong fingers as he rubs her shoulders and then sweeps them back into her hair. She’s sure that while her migraine is still very much present she is too thoroughly distracted and caught up in his hands on her to feel it. And when he stops, her body slumped pleasantly against his and his hands resting on his thighs she lets out the most pathetic whimper in disappointment. She was comfortable and content and he stopped. Not cool.

Not that she isn’t still both comfortable and content with the heat of him seeping through her old t-shirt and into her back. And heaven help her with the way his laugh rumbles in his chest. But neither of them move for a long time. She can’t make herself. But when the silence draws on too long to the point that it’s starting to feel uncomfortable rather than easy Darcy sighs and sits up. She doesn’t want to move but moving is clearly for the best as she shuffles over him back to her corner.

“Thanks for that,” she murmurs her feet falling into his lap because well she’s always been tactile and she doesn’t want him to think she feels weird about the massage he just gave her. (She does, but not in any way how he might think.) There is no other way to classify what just happened as anything but a massage and she needs to remind her libido that they are in too much pain to go exploring that one.

“No problem dollface. Better?” He asks tilting his head and giving her a wonderful glimpse of his dimples as he smiles at her.

She nods, “Yeah. And for that, I’m going to give you the rundown I should have given you instead of trying to make you run out the door screaming.”

His eyebrows go up and she wonders if technically he’s already figured it out but doesn’t have the heart to tell her. Or worries that if he does it’ll kill the mood. Which it would and she’d be disappointed even more because this is downright friendly and she likes it in more ways than one.

“The rundown?” He questions.

She shoves her fingers through her hair wincing when she catches a snarl and carefully removes them to sit in her lap where her dastardly fingers can’t do any more harm. “Yeah, the rundown. You know I’m a coding goddess, so we won’t get into that. Anything mechanical see Tony. If you haven’t in the time you’ve been here, I suggest you do. He spent the first month practically salivating at the idea of getting to tinker with that arm of yours. Need to fine-tune the biological to machine input-output, that's a Bruce Tony brainchild. I am so sorry for your appointment. Pepper is the queen of all things trendy. Clint, Sam, Nat, and Steve are fabulous sparring partners. Though I’m sure you knew that about half of them already and probably discovered as much about the other two. Do not break Sam, I like him he’s sweet and doesn’t let you crazy super soldiers keep him down.” She says the last bit with her handheld up and a gleam to her blue eyes when she spots the amused glint in Bucky’s eyes and the way his mouth twists into a mischievous grin.

“Wanda I’ve determined is quiet but surprisingly deadly. Do not mess with her if you like your head the way it is. Thor while loud and brash is actually very caring. If you want a history lesson of Asgard ask him, if you don’t keep to the weird Earth things you both need to learn. You’ll probably still get some sort of Asgard history lesson in the process, but it’ll be less long windy, and he is an awesome storyteller. I have no idea what to make of Vision he sort of creeps me out,” she presses that hand she held up when she reached Sam to his lips, “But Tony trusts him enough to let him stick around and work with the Avengers so I don’t have any concerns about my safety. Besides he’s got enough JARVIS in him that I don’t think he could hurt me despite his terrible understanding of boundaries. Questions?” She finishes giving him a look as she withdraws her hand.

“I think you left out Jane.” He says his blue eyes dancing with possibilities if she’d just let them explore them. And she wants to, she does, but Tony would kill him and Darcy actually kind of likes him as her bodyguard because he isn’t a complete ass about it like the one she had when she was a kid.

“Jane is small but dangerous. She will open a wormhole into nothing if you so much as look at me funny, which is almost more terrifying than the fact that Tony would probably use you as a test monkey for repulsor jet output improvements if you crossed even the slightest line he doesn’t approve of.”

Warning him to play nice until she can wrangle father and best friend into remembering she is fully capable of making her own decisions abso-fucking-lutely. He must realize that because she can see the shutters fall into place over his eyes, the potential for mischief fading like a dying flashlight as he leans back into the couch, head tilting back to gaze at the ceiling as he lets loose a heavy sigh. His arms spread over the back of the couch, his fingers twisting in a lock of her hair absently until she pulls away and her feet from his lap.

“Don’t let it get to you sarge. Before Wanda, I was the youngest person in the building. The number of surrogate parents and older siblings I developed, as a result, is both awesome and frustrating. Be glad you weren’t my first bodyguard or boyfriend. Both were ugly days around here.”

Snorting Bucky waves a hand before pushing to his feet, “I can imagine with the hazing you put me through. Hope you feel better doll.”

“You deserved it. And I will. Thank you for getting me the painkillers.” She offers him a smile as she spreads out a little on the couch now that he’s vacated it.

“You would have done the same for me. I’ll check on you later.” Darcy watches him leave trying very hard not to ogle as he goes on those silent feet of his, but she knows she gives his rear a good look before tilting her head back and sighs.

“That went pretty well if I do say so myself.”

“Darcy are you ever coming back, I need your help getting the-”

“I’m coming Jane, keep your shirt on. Did you finally get Tony and FRIDAY to send more packing peanuts?”

“They aren’t packing peanuts. They’re specially padded crates so my machines don’t get damaged in transit.” Jane sounds cross like Darcy should have known that already.

Nodding Darcy gets to her feet, her migraine temporarily handled and forgotten as she makes her way out of the lounge with its views of the New York City skyline haze and all and back down to the labs.

“Right sorry, how could I have forgotten? I’m on my way.” Darcy confirms as she hits the button for the elevator. Now she just had to keep her wits about her and not spill that Bucky Barnes just gave her a massage or you know think about how Bucky Barnes had just given her a massage for the next eight hours minimum. Someone tell her how was she going to survive this?


End file.
